THE LEAF AND THE WING

Raven Sad started as a solo project by guitarist Samuele Santanna in 2005 but gradually turned in a four piece formation, making the albums Quoth (2008), We Are Not Alone (2009), Layers Of Stratosphere (2011) and recently, after a hiatus of 10 years, the new album The Leaf And The Wing (January 2021), all at the prolific Polish prog label Lizard Records.

This is my first encounter with Raven Sad its music, during the listening sessions I got more and more delighted, what a wonderful tastefully arranged progressive rock, very melodic and accessible, like Eighties Neo-Prog. The 8 mostly mid-long compositions alternate between dreamy parts, slow rhythms and bombastic eruptions. It sounds very flowing with the focus on the excellent, often moving guitar work, with obvious hints from Andy Latimer, Steve Rothery and Nick Barrett. The keyboard play is pleasant with lots of (Hammond) organ, along piano, Fender electric piano, Mellotron and Minimoog synthesizer. The English vocals feature a slight accent but I like the emotional overtones, matching with the often sensitive electric guitar. The rhythm section does a good job, with strong interplay in the more dynamic parts. Despite the long running time (close to 70 minutes) Raven Sad succeeds to keep my attention. My highlights.

City Lights And Desert Dark (9-53) is a very dynamic and varied track, between dreamy and swinging, pretty funky rhythms, blended with inspired vocals and outstanding guitar work, from howling to heavy, wow!

The epic Colorbox (13:00) starts with tender vocals and piano, then an accellaration with fiery guitar and organ and a bombastic part with moving guitar, soaring organ and emotional vocals. Halfway a slow rhythm with again moving guitar, powerful drums and waves of organ. Then a break with Mellotron choir and spoken words. The final part delivers a slow rhythm with organ and emotional vocals, topped with howling guitar, the asset on this new album.

Approaching The Chaos (8:50) begins with a dreamy climate featuring a catchy guitar riff and the distinctive electric piano sound (like Riders On The Storm from The Doors). Then a bombastic eruption, the contrast between the heavy guitar and tender piano and choir sound creates a captivating tension. The music turns into a tight beat with moving guitar runs and sparkling piano work. Now the mighty Hammond joins, blended with fiery guitar, the interplay by the band is awesome. Back to a slow and compelling rhythm with soaring Hammond and moving guitar, this is a Raven Sad trademark, I love it. In this dynamic second part a surprising break with jazzy piano and spoken words, one of the many interesting musical ideas. Finally again those wonderful sensitive guitar runs, Prog Heaven!

The other epic composition is Ride the Tempest (11:55), first dreamy with warm vocals, tender piano, then a slow rhythm, gradually the music becomes more bombastic with fiery guitar and emotional vocals, but returns to the dreamy sound in the first part. Again the music slowly builds, culminating in sumptuous climate, embellished with Hammond, powerful vocals and howling guitar runs, wow. The final part is mellow featuring piano and a melancholical Mellotron violin sound, a beautiful conclusion.

My first encounter with this promising Italian band has turned into a very pleasant musical experience! By the way, this is now Eighties Neo-Prog oriented, not really psychedelic/space rock.

Very accessible, but absolutely not in a "boring" way. This is the first Raven Sad album I've listened to. I'd assume early albums are slightly more psychedelic than this one, as it only really hints at psychedelia, but the "dreamscape" effect is present in many of the tracks. Certainly towards the end it reminds me of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb in style and pace.

Most tracks alternate between dreamscape and slightly heavier interruptions which blend together really well as the organs and guitar play off each other. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Colorbox, the longest track on the album, is probably a bit love or hate - it has the feel of a systematic walkthrough of several subgenres of prog one by one. For me, its the reason for giving four stars rather than five as its the only time the composition seems a bit artificial. But every other track is excellent.

A wonderful new RAVEN SAD statement, this after a pause of round about 10 years. Well, not exactly. That might be the common impression maybe when you're solely considering the release dates, while not really being aware what's happening behind the curtain. Quite earlier actually, it was April 2018 already, when mastermind Samuele Santanna constituted a new five-piece line up in order to prepare for the band's fourth album. This together again with his long time friend Fabrizio Trinci (keyboards). Vocals are now contributed by Gabriele Marconcini. This is a winner. I'd say a very good find and decision, no question. We also see Marco Geri (bass) and drummer Francesco Carnesecchi being new to the fold, both are providing very solid contributions as expected.

This album still showcases the typical RAVEN SAD feel, however definitely not a simple copycat case, when matching with the previous albums. It's a neo and psychedelic prog blend basically, featuring haunting melodies all over. Here and there some Pink Floyd reminiscence is shimmering through. A distinct mellow flow is presented, though diverse heavier and groovy moments are incorporated too by way of variety. Which yet again is leading to the summed up attribute: entertaining. Celestial acoustic and electric guitar playing, pearling piano lines, spheric synths, expressive vocal presence. There's no need to highlight any particular song. Because they are offering a rounded production, appealing from the first to the last minute. 4.5 stars on the PA scale.

Review #7 - Beautiful prog rock from Italy!

The pandemic has a lot of bad effects - but from a musical point of view I always notice that many terrific albums were released this year (2021) and last. "The Leaf And The Wing" joins seamlessly in this line, because it is again an album that can carry away and inspire. At the same time, the fourth album of the Italians is not a hectic prog fireworks. Rather, this album impresses with a very strong production, homogeneous songwriting and an inherent balance, which is why the album can even give a lot of pleasure after a long day. I would like to briefly elaborate on these three points: First, the clean and powerful production can be mentioned as a clear strength of the album. Every instrument has its fixed place and its space to unfold transparently. This has a particularly positive effect, for example, on the wonderful bass of Marco Geri and the beautiful voice of Gabriele Marconcini, which in itself is a reason to love the album. Then the sovereign and homogeneous songwriting of the band founder and guitarist Samuele Santanna must be mentioned. While he knows how to use his guitar consciously as a melodic instrument in solo parts, but also as a gruff rhythm tool (listen to the bold one in the sixth track!), he shapes the eight songs, always harmonious and very expressive in themselves, with particular care. Finally, the mood and stylistics of the album should be mentioned. One can hear clear influences of Pink Floyd, which the band is able to transform into their very own musical footprint. This is also contributed by the beautiful Hammond organ and piano inserts of the keyboardist Fabrizio Trinci, who, however, also relies on cool 80s brass sounds in the third song, for example, and adds another facet to the music. A great album, which I listen to with love almost every day so far. There is a lot to discover on Raven Sad's new album!

Raven Sad are an Italian band hailing from Tuscany, listed here under Psych as opposed to RPI.

The Leaf and the Wing, released in 2021, is their fourth album, albeit the first since reforming in 2017 following a six-year layoff. This album has been one of the most pleasant surprises this year for me, having picked it up following a favourable review elsewhere in the prog universe. Band founder Samule Santanna is a fine guitarist, and he is joined by old cohort Fabrizio Trinci on keyboards, with new band members Gabriele Marconcini, the lead singer, Marco Geri on bass, and Francesco Carnesecci on drums.

Growing older, and hopefully wiser, I am not a huge fan of labelling works by their supposed sub-genre, so it is sufficient to say that this is very much an atmospheric work which rather escapes such categorisation. There are many highlights.

The album is bookmarked by two instrumental tracks, Legend #1 & #2. The initial piece is a perfect introduction to the type of soaring sounds we hear all over the album preceded by a Floydian talk-over. The closer brings proceedings to a close with five minutes of an ensemble beauty which provides perfectly the conclusion to the work I describe below.

The Sadness of the Raven is a thoughtful track, whilst City Lights and Desert Dark features at its core a vocal which reminds me very much of one Yusuf Islam, or Cat Stevens as he was previously known, and some wonderful riffing by all concerned creating a mid-track wall of noise, with a wonderful, soaring guitar solo by Santanna which segues into a beautiful, brief, coda.

There are two 10-minute plus epics on the album. First up is Colorbox, a monster of a track clocking in at 13 minutes, and my favourite here. It opens with a quite lovely harmonic vocal overlaid on a piano chord before entering a far darker (again brief) phase. This then takes us into the main segment, which twists and turns in its themes and musical textures, but with that lovely "wake up" vocal at its core. Marconcini can make you sit up and take notice, because the hairs on the back of your neck are rising when he hits the top notes. The closing third is just gorgeously dreamy with piano and a deceptively powerful rhythm section backing more soaring guitars before the lead vocal introduces the close with intensity. Very powerful and very classy progressive rock.

Approaching the Chaos is a heavier track, but with some interesting fusion cemented within. A sense of deep foreboding is expertly created in this instrumental story which then takes us to the second epic, Ride the Tempest. When said Tempest arrives a third of the way in, following a deceptive calm, it hits you straight between the eyes, but once more the moods and tempos change as we move through the track with such intelligence. The easy option would have been to provide us with crashing riffs throughout, but the band take us on a journey, at once with beautiful guitars, then with thumping drum and bass underscored by some looping keyboard work. The closing segment features a mournful cello solo.

Absolution Trial is simply a joyful heavy prog piece of music, perhaps not as subtle as all else here, but certainly foot-tapping and head-shaking execution before the close once again has those soaring guitars and delicate vocals underscored by rhythmic excellence.

What we have here is a work whose musicianship is never less than exemplary, with vocals that lilt all over your sound system, and a sense of yearning throughout, and by far the best (what I have interpreted as a) commentary I have heard on climate disaster since the wonderful Disturbance Fields by Edison's Children, to which I feel it is worthy of being compared both in scope and in execution. The production is crystal clear, and the album is available via Bandcamp. Oh, and the cover is to die for as well.

Highly recommended, and four stars for an album I hope marks the long term re-emergence of a talented outfit.

The beer flows flooded by the song of the cicadas...this is how the new album of the Florentine group RAVEN SAD begins, ten years after the remarkable "Layers of Stratosphere" one of the very best works of RPI of the decade 2010. After this refreshing but energetic opening we get to the heart of the matter with "The Sadness of the Raven" introduced by the acoustic guitar of Samuele SANTANNA, then the piano of Fabrizio TRINCI (the two remaining members of the original line-up of 2008) and we discover with unfeigned pleasure the vocal cords of the new singer Gabriele MARCONCINI, excellent from this title with a remarkable diction of the language of SHAKESPEARE which is not always the case with the transalpine formations not expressing themselves in their mother tongue, a delight of progressive symphonic music from the start of the album, so of course difficult to go higher thereafter (10/10).

Change of scenery with "City Lights And Desert Dark", more rock, more complex, less symphonic, which highlights the rhythm section made up of Marco GERI on bass guitar and Franco CARNESECCHI, two of the newcomers in RAVEN SAD as well as the electric six-string this time by Samuele (in the middle of the title then in the finale), a piece that is less easy to listen to but which I managed to tame after several attempts, well helped by the quality of Gabriele's voice ( 9/10). Let's move on to "Colorbox" the most extensive piece of the work, which begins with a piano/light voice duo, before the intervention of the guitar which will guide the piece towards the heights of what we like so much in this flamboyant rock. progressive Italian, full-blooded symphony in this colorful box, carried by a powerful and lyrical voice which we should talk about again, if only for comparison when we have other records from other formations to analyze ( 10/10).

It's time to calm down, Mr. Chronicler! With "Approaching The Chaos" we remain in the high qualitative spheres except that the title is instrumental, where we hear a little more the keyboards of Fabrizio TRINCI, piano in the lead and twirling moog, it's magical and magnificent to the time (9/10). Second track extended then, with the almost twelve minutes of "Ride The Tempest" of easy translation and what to say that we have not said so far? A softer and more intimate track in its first part, everything is in place, brilliant and energizing music, without false notes, before swooning six-string arabesques, the only solution, buy and listen, those and those who follow, know my severity sometimes, here none of that (9/10).

Finally comes the worst track of the album which does not mean that it is bad, simply the rest is so majestic that... Phew would I be tempted to say and height of irony this "Absolution Trial " is the title that was chosen to present the disc to the media, a little too basic for my taste... (8/10). The second part of "Legends" the concluding instrumental track is simply magical like the vast majority of the album, illuminated by the guitar of Samuele SANTANNA (9/10). There is no doubt that this "leaf" and this "wing" will remain at the top of my pyramid for a bunch of months or more...

To conclude, an essential opinion concerning the vocal range of Gabriele MARCONCINI, you take a shaker and you mix the throats of Bernardo LANZETTI, Alessandro CORVAGLIA and Alessio CALANDRIELLO and you serve hot!!!